Authorities identify Rockford homicide victim

Tuesday

May 27, 2014 at 12:16 PMMay 27, 2014 at 2:14 PM

ROCKFORD — Authorities have identified a man who suffered fatal gunshot wounds while driving in the area of Hutchins Avenue and Pearl Street Monday on the city’s near east side as 21-year-old Andrew T. Barth of Rockford.

Barth is believed to have had an altercation with occupants of another vehicle before there was bloodshed.

Barth was driving a pickup truck around 1:15 p.m. Monday when multiple gunshots were fired from another vehicle. There was an altercation with occupants of a dark-colored minivan. A black man in his 20s got out of the van and opened fire. He returned to the van and fled the area in the van driven by another suspect.

Barth’s pickup crashed into a parked car. Barth apparently sought help at a residence in the 500 block of Pearl where he collapsed.

He was transported to SwedishAmerican Hospital where he was declared dead at 2:09 p.m.

An autopsy conducted Tuesday determined that Barth was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest, Winnebago County Chief Deputy Coroner William Hintz said in a news release.

No suspect information has been released by police.

Someone who had been with Barth fled on foot after the shooting, Assistant Deputy Chief Doug Pann said.

“We are talking to witnesses,” Pann said. “We don’t believe this was a random act of violence, but we don’t know what happened yet.”